Choosing an Approved Platform is good. Giving it a mandate is mandatory. Without this document, your PA cannot register you in the central directory — and without a directory entry, no one can send you an electronic invoice. Here's everything you need to know.
What is a PA mandate?
The PA mandate (also called a "designation mandate" or "opt-in mandate") is a contractual document signed by your company's legal representative (or an authorised delegate). It officially authorises your Approved Platform to act on your behalf for two mandatory actions:
Register you in the PPF's central directory (managed by the AIFE).
Activate your electronic billing address(es) there, associated with the chosen PA.
Without a signed mandate, your PA can't do anything in the directory. And without an entry in the directory, you can neither receive nor issue electronic invoices via the PA network.
The mandate is free. It's not a paid service: it's simply the administrative formality that gives your PA the authority to act on your behalf in the State's system.
Sample mandate: the FNFE-MPE template
The Forum National de la Facturation Électronique et des Marchés Publics Électroniques (FNFE-MPE) has published a designation mandate template, freely available on its website.
👉 Download the FNFE-MPE mandate template
Ecosio has its own mandate. If you choose to go through our partner PA, your customer success contact will send you the Ecosio mandate to complete and sign.
This template is the reference document recognised by PAs and by the DGFiP. It contains the following fields to complete:
Mandate parameters:
Desired effective date (date from which the PA can act in the directory)
List of electronic addresses to register (see below)
Previous PA, if migrating from another platform
What is an electronic billing address?
The electronic billing address (also called a routing identifier or directory address) is your "digital postal address" in the reform's system. It's how your suppliers' PAs know where to send you their invoices.
It must start with your SIREN number, followed by an optional suffix.
Possible address formats
Format | Example | Use case |
|---|---|---|
|
| Single-establishment company. The simplest electronic address. |
|
| To distinguish between departments (purchasing, sales, subsidiaries…) |
|
| If you manage several establishments with separate addresses |
|
| For multi-site structures needing fine-grained routing by department |
💡 Recommendation: for the vast majority of SMEs and mid-sized companies, an address in the
SIRENformat (e.g.:123456789) is sufficient.
The electronic billing address can be up to 95 characters long. It appears in the PPF directory, as well as in the invoice's own fields (BT-49 for the buyer's address, BT-34 for the seller's address).
How to choose the right addressing level?
SIREN level (company-wide): all invoices arrive at the same address, regardless of entity or site. This is the simplest choice, suited to companies with no need for segmentation.
SIRET level (establishment-wide): each establishment (site, branch, subsidiary) receives its invoices at a separate address. Useful if your establishments have independent accounting teams.
Beware of multiple addresses: if you create several addresses for the same SIREN, you'll need to make sure all your suppliers know the correct address to use. An invoice sent to the wrong address may be routed incorrectly or rejected.
IMPORTANT: When issuing invoices, you do not need to specify an electronic billing address for the issuing PA.
How is your company registered?
When you authorize your issuing PA, after the authorization is received, the process is as follows:
You submit your authorization to your PA. If you have signed up for our Ecosio partner program, we will forward the authorization to Ecosio on your behalf.
Your PA or Ecosio registers you with PEPPOL using your SIREN number (not in the PPF directory, since this is the issuing PA).
Your SIREN number is registered with PEPPOL.
What happens if I switch PA?
The reform guarantees the portability of your electronic billing address. If you switch PA, you keep your address: it's the PA that changes in the directory, not the address.
To trigger a PA change, simply sign a new mandate with your new PA, mentioning the previous PA in the document. The transition is handled by both PAs and the PPF directory.